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Telefónica has revealed a new strategic plan that will see the telco become a “100 percent digital company”.

Presenting the Spain-based operator’s business strategy for the coming years, Executive Chairman César Alierta said Telefónica would funnel its efforts toward improving the digital experience of customers, with an emphasis on connectivity, integrated offerings and an open internet.

Alierta said the overall aim of Telefónica was to transform itself into an “onlife telco”, comprising the end-to-end digitalisation of the company, simplifying customer propositions and harnessing big data to improve customer experience.

He claimed that digitising Telefónica both internally and externally would further allow the company to offer customers a unique digital experience while simultaneously enabling the telco to allocate more resources toward financing growth and new innovation.

The operator returned to growth for the first time in seven years during Q3.

Under its new strategic plan, the company will expand the range of integrated products it offers customers - namely, services that have been adapted to the specific needs of businesses and consumers - and push to improve connectivity “anywhere and from any device with the highest maximum quality”.

Touching on the need to transform networks to cater for the arrival of 5G and the Internet of Things, Alierta said: “With everyone and everything connected, with the foundation of excellent connectivity, services of the future are limitless. And facilitating these connections, through connectivity, is the core of our business.

“Digitalisation and Big Data will change everything, will transform all production models. They are the key to innovation, to offering our customers greater value, and to making better business decisions.”

The Chairman also claimed that Telefónica would do more to promote privacy and transparency regarding big data.

Echoing calls made by Vodafone last week, Alierta said power needed to be placed into the hands of customers regarding how companies make use of the data collected on them.

He added: “Customers have to recover their digital sovereignty, to own their digital footprint and consciously decide how they want to make use of their data. Telefónica will always guarantee customer privacy and will do so securely and transparently. And it shall do all of this based on the principles of responsible and sustainable business.”